TMS or not

I'll try to make this brief & I apologise if there are some details that are intimate. I have pretty much accepted that my back & neck pain are TMS but I have another problem that I'm not so sure about.

In Oct 2012 I went to China for a 5 day trip. On my last day there I started having this burning pain AFTER I peed. I came back to HK thinking it would clear. It was on & off till I went to see the doctor in December. He basically thought urine infection except my urine came back normal. He gave me some meds & the pain was better for a bit & then in Feb it got worse. Same thing again, urine sample was negative. So in April I went to see a gynecologist.

Here I must tell u that in 1997 I had an operation to remove some fibroids but not my uterus. The largest was 11cm. The funny thing is that I felt no pain back then even though there were so many fibroids growing. The only givaway was an enlarged tummy.

2 fibroids have since grown agian . One is 6cm & is not shrinking as it should after menopause so the Dr. thought that the pain may have something to do with the fibroid & suggested I remove the uterus. It was possible she said that there was a lot of scar tissue from the previous operation which may be causing problems.

I went in search of a second opinion & this time the doctor says it may be & it may not be. Can't be sure.

Since then I have seen 4 more doctors & 2 say yes the operation may help & 2 say they don't know.

The latest Dr whom I saw recently & who spent a lot of time with me seems to think that the fibroid may be responsible for the problem. he took me thru the whole ultrasound thing showing me the position of the fibroid which is low down almost touching the cervix & was able to reproduce the pain on pressing.

He has however told me to take my time to think about the op & to be sure.

The pain is there very much all the time like a deep interior bruising. It changes into a burning pain which happens AFTER I pee, not during & can last sometimes up to 2 hrs. Its very very uncomfortable. I have noticed that it gets worse if I am too active.

I also had a cystoscopy & bladder ultrasound & the urologist does not seem to think it is the bladder.

I thought about it long & hard & a few months ago I remembered that in China I went swimming one day in the sea. There was a storm coming and the waves were very forceful. I remember at one stage feeling a huge surge of water going up me. It was very powerful I wonder if that could have somehow hurt me inside.

So I'm not sure whether to treat this as tms or an issue that needs medical attention

I would like to hear what you think.

thx for reading my post.

Mala

 

Mala, based on my personal experience I think it could be TMS. About 4 years ago I had a pain in my bladder/pelvis. It felt like a bladder infection and often it burned after I urinated. It was not an infection but the pain was intense. All the medication they gave me for the pain only made me sick. The closest diagnosis I could come up with was interstitial cystitis. As I did more research I realized that many of the prescribed medical interventions often resulted in either no improvement or an increase in pain. I would not put removal of fibroids in this category because I know there are times when it is medically necessary to remove them. But if some of your doctors are recommending surgery only for the pain and not for other reasons, I would explore TMS first. The pain in my pelvis/bladder came and went and then eventually went away for years. When I started working on the TMS nine months ago it began to resurface occasionally like many of my previous TMS symptoms. I have full confidence in my case that it is TMS. But I am also sure that it they had found fibroids in my sonogram four years ago I would have thought they were the cause of the pain because it was so constant and intense.

 

Anne, many thx for such a prompt reply.

You said you had pain in your bladder & pelvis. I wonder could u describe that a bit more.

I asked my urologist if it was IC & she was quite emphatic about it not being that becoz she said that I would have urinary urgency & a feeling of fullness in the bladder if that were the case.

She also said she saw a lot of women my age going thru the change with unexplainable pain, (I'm 56 this year) .

My gynecologist also mentioned vaginal atrophy.


Mala

 

It has been a few years since I researched this. I was never diagnosed with IC, and I can't remember exactly why my doctor thought it wasn't IC. He said I had bladder spasms. The pain in my bladder/pelvic area has changed over time. Sometimes I do feel urinary urgency and sometimes it does burn after I urinate. This last year the pain when it comes seems lower than my bladder and more concentrated in the urethra area. That might not be the right word, but whatever that part where the urine comes out. Its concentrated there and then extends up to my bladder. I'm sorry it is hard to describe. Now that I am thinking about it, when I was in college(30 years ago) I had pelvic pain and thought it might be endometriosis. I saw various doctors then but they couldn't figure anything out. But that pain was more in my groin toward my hip bones. I had really forgotten all about that. I am sure that was TMS as well. The reason I am convinced it is TMS is that my symptoms move around. The pain didn't always move around but since I have been consciously trying to heal from TMS I seem to cycle through almost all of the chronic pain conditions I have had the last 20 years.

 

Hi Mala,
I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing all this. I don't know if I my experience will be helpful to you now but I'll share it just in case. I did have a complete hysterectomy many years ago due to intense pain that cycled with my hormones. My official diagnosis was endometriosis, but I know now that it was TMS. I did have a short time of symptom relief after my surgery, but pretty quickly the symptom imperative kicked in and I developed fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. There is no escaping TMS through surgery I found.

With regard to fibroids--I never had uterine fibroids, but I've known several friends who have had them, and they often disappear on their own. That makes me believe that they are likely TMS. I've had severe fibrocystic breast condition for over 20 years. When doctors would examine me, they would often say it was the worst case they had seen, with cysts so large the ultrasound technician thought I had implants. It was very painful and I would have to get them drained at times. Well, I got my annual breast exam and mammogram this week, and the condition is almost completely gone! That is after 10 months of discovering TMS and working on it. It's so amazing what the mindbody is capable of!

Wishing you peace and freedom from pain...

 

Hi Anne & Ellen. Thank u for posting & for yr good wishes.

Anne the pain I feel is just like that. High up. It feels like a bruise as if someone has punched me there. then when I wee, it changes into a burning pain, very odd indeed.

One of the things that concern the doctors is that the fibroid should have shrunk somewhat after menopause. I have been menopausal for nearly 6 yrs now & in fact the fibroids have grown a little. Oestrogen level is low as it should be so its not the oestrogen feeding the fibroid. Its something else and its active at least the larger one is which is not normal after menopause .

I was extremely fit & healthy for the first 40 yrs of my life. Then I had the op to remove the fibroids. I have never been as healthy since that time even though the op went swimmingly well.

These last few days I have been challenging my pains by doing half an hour of Zumba every day. As of now I am trying to think of it as TMS

regards

Mala